


Duty of a Princess

by Traxits



Series: Silk for Bravery, Gold for Honor [2]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Gen, side fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-03-06
Updated: 2016-03-06
Packaged: 2018-05-25 03:54:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,557
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6179194
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Traxits/pseuds/Traxits
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Court used to be dull.  With the addition of a new Water Tribe Princess, Yue finds it much more intriguing.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Duty of a Princess

**Author's Note:**

> So, I'm doing a challenge on my [tumblr](http://traxits.tumblr.com) wherein I have [15 prompts](http://traxits.tumblr.com/post/140484322872/silk-prompt-list) and I'm taking suggestions for ways to fill those prompts with side-fics for Silk. For this particular prompt, I had a request for Zuko/Sokka or Yue. I really thought I could write Zuko/Sokka to this prompt, but then I started working on it and all I could think was Yue. So. Enjoy? This takes place before Zuko, Sokka, Aang, Katara, or Suki end up in the North Pole.
> 
> Prompt 10: Memories.

Used to, court had been boring. Used to, it was everything Yue could do just to sit through it, to keep herself awake and alert and not longing to go outside and watch the ocean. There was something peaceful about watching the ocean, hearing it and feeling it pound against the ice that shaped her world. These days, however, court was far more interesting, and while some part of her always longed to go and watch the water (no, some part of her longed to dive in, to shed everything that made her and breathe the water), it was pushed aside in favor of watching her father and his courtiers try to make sense of the world around them.

All because of a Water Tribe princess. Some Water Tribe princess that no one knew.

"The Southern Water Tribe doesn't exist anymore," someone said, and there was a hearty round of agreement. Yue watched the way Master Pakku shuttered at the proclamation, and she wondered at it. The Southern Water Tribe had been wiped out for years. Almost as long as she could remember. Oh, there were still people there. There had to be, or the tides might not know where they were supposed to rock between. There had to be people down there to remind them, or so she'd been taught.

But there was no Southern Water Tribe anymore.

"They have no benders," came the low agreement. After just a moment of silence, the same voice added, "They have no warriors left. They threw them all away in that mad attempt to overthrow the Fire Nation."

Yue could remember that day. She remembered the day their ships arrived, riding low in the water and with no bender to ensure that they wouldn't sink. It was just men, armed so heavily that her father would only let one of them into the court to speak. It had been some minor chief who had stepped up to do it. She couldn't remember his name, but he'd spoken well. Now that she was older, she realized that. He'd been passionate; he'd believed in their cause.

It was Master Pakku who had turned him away, who had turned the council and her father against the request. Oh, he'd been willing enough at first, but the moment he heard the man's name (and why could she not remember that?) he'd spoken out against the idea.

They'd let their sister tribe die that day. Yue had stolen away to watch from the walls as their ships left, and she'd prayed to everything she knew that they could make it. That they could do the impossible. In her heart, however, she'd known better. The snow had fallen when they'd left, and she'd stayed on the walls until someone came to find her. She'd been so cold that her fingertips had turned numb, and it had taken the healers two days to pronounce her recovered.

She'd never told any of them what she'd been doing up there.

"What could this girl be thinking? Who is she, even?" someone snarled, and Yue tilted her head, hair falling down past one shoulder as she glanced up at her father. His jaw had tensed. He didn't know either then, because while they had the girl's name, it didn't help. There was no surname, no family mentioned. Only her title and her first name, and what kind of name was 'Sokka' for a princess anyway? It would have been a fine name for a son, but a girl?

Perhaps, Yue had decided privately, the girl's father had wished for a son. A prince to save them all. And instead, he'd been given a girl. Her fingers twisted in the fabric of her dress. She couldn't feel the texture under her fingertips anymore, not after the sheer number of times she'd courted frostbite, but she knew it was likely to be soft. It had to be. She was a princess, same as this unknown girl. Did the girl wear the same thing? Did she do any of the same things that Yue did?

Did it matter?

"She's nobody," the waterbending master growled, but his voice shuddered. Cracked. Brittle ice that needed to be shattered and returned to the ocean so the benders could fashion new. It wouldn't support the weight and the stress of everyday use.

Yue stood, and the discussion fell quiet as everyone looked at her. She was ornamental here. Always had been. Her job was to bow to her father's wishes and marry when he told her to. She had no true power in this room, only a duty to her people. She knew her role. Her destiny. It was nothing like this Southern Water Tribe princess, but...

She did not clear her throat the way the men did before they spoke. Instead, she simply stepped down from the dias, quietly declining the hand of the court sage who always reached to assist her. She turned to face her father, her hands folded in front of her so that he could not see the tremors there, could not see her nerves. Her hair moved every time she breathed, a constant white shimmer at the very edges of her vision, and she met his gaze. Smiled.

"Chief Arnook," she said, "Council Members." She turned slowly to look at each of them before she looked back at her father. "She is a princess." She could hear the rush of air around her, but she didn't let herself stop. It didn't matter what the others thought. It didn't matter that they were so quick to denounce this girl and everything she was trying to do. "She is a princess as I am a princess, guarding the hearts and hopes of her people."

Her hands tightened around each other, and she didn't have to look at them to know that her knuckles were as white as her hair, as the snow around them.

"We failed the Southern Water Tribe once before," she added, and the immediate shuffle around the room practically underlined her words. She was the single worst bender that poor old Yugoda had ever trained, but she could feel the rhythm of the water better than anyone else. She could feel the hearts of her people, and she knew she spoke the truth here. This knowledge had become a lingering pool of stagnant water, festering and horrible and no one wanted to acknowledge it.

Eventually, it would bleed into the rest of the water, and what would they do then?

"We should not make the mistake of doing so again. This princess, whoever she is, might be all they have left." She lifted her chin slightly, and she watched the way the tension in her father slowly drained away. Acknowledgement. Agreement, even. It was time to bend the pool that no one wanted to look at. Time to purify it. "We must find out what she plans, but more importantly, I feel we must support her should she arrive here."

"Princess," Master Pakku said, and his voice was as brittle as it had ever been. Still, she tilted her head to look at him even though she didn't turn to face him. It wasn't quite a cut, but it truly wasn't the politest she'd ever been. "With all due respect, Princess, you don't know this girl. I highly doubt you capable of speaking to her intentions."

"Why, Master Pakku, I believe I am as entitled to speak to them as you are." Her father snorted very slightly, and Yue didn't let herself look at him. He was trying to hold back a laugh, and she would not be the cause of him losing that control. "But in any case, I do plan to speak to our warriors and our healers to see if we can develop options for our sister tribe. If they have survived this long, without our assistance, they will surely need options."

"She's betrothed to the Prince of the Fire Nation!"

Yue recognized the voice, but she couldn't place it immediately. It didn't matter. "So they say," she replied, and she gathered up the sides of her skirt to curtsy as politely as she could. "If you'll excuse me, I do have duties to attend to." She met her father's gaze once more, and then added, "Options to explore."

When she left the room, her attendants rushed out after her. She could feel the pull of the water, feel the way everything was shifting around her. She flexed her hands, looking down at them, and she watched as the white indentions of her own fingers slowly turned red. They might bruise later, she'd been holding on so hard.

How desperate would she have to be to agree to marry the Prince of the Fire Nation?

No. That wasn't the right question. The question, truly, was how desperate would she be if this sparkling city was gone, if her people were nothing more than a handful, no benders to protect them, no warriors left to fight off the Fire Nation?

Her hand clenched into a fist, and she walked down the hallway toward the gates of the city so that she could climb the wall and look out at the ocean again. She didn't have to meet this princess to speak to her mind.

She already knew.


End file.
